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“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
JOHN 1:14

The word “mystery” is often used carelessly and, consequently, has been misused. When the word “mystery” is used in relation to Christ, it has to do with that aspect of Christ that can never be discovered. The apostle John attempts to lift us into the mystery of God and into the circles of deity far beyond the pursuit of man. Realms so high, lofty and noble that it is impossible to us to follow to its conclusion.

The phrase that stirs up the sense of mystery is, “And the Word was made flesh” (John 1:14). In six simple words, the apostle states the most profound mystery of human thought—how deity could cross the gulf separating what is God from what is not God. Although man in all of his scientific advancement has made the world very complex, John the apostle breaks down the entire universe into two things: God and not God. The mystery is compounded by the fact that between that which is God and that which is not God is a great and impassable gulf.

The most profound mystery of human flaw is how the creator could join Himself to the creature. How the “Word,” meaning Christ, could be made “flesh,” meaning the creature, is one of the most amazing mysteries to contemplate. Some may not think it is so amazing, but those who have meditated on this will be amazed at the unbridgeable gulf between God and not God. A gulf is fixed, a vast gulf of infinitude, and how God managed to bridge that gulf and join Himself to His creatures and limit the limitless is beyond our comprehension. In the language we hear more properly, how can the infinite ever become the finite, and how can that which has no limit deliberately impose upon Himself limitations?

It is the arrogance of man that believes that he is, or at least acts as though he is, the only order of being. The Bible clearly teaches that humanity is only one order of God’s creation. There are angels and cherubim and seraphim and creatures and watchers and holy ones and all of these strange principalities and powers that walk so darkly and brightly through the passages of the Bible.

The mystery of it all is, He came down to the lowest order and took upon Himself the nature and seed of Abraham. “Great is the mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16).

I often think of the wise words of John Wesley: “Distinguish the act from the method by which the act is performed and do not reject the fact because you do not know how it was done.” In coming to the mystery of that which is Christ incarnate, we reverently bow our heads and confess, “It is so, God, but we don’t know how.” I will not reject the fact because I do not know the operation by which it was brought to pass.

When the “Word was made flesh,” His deity did not suffer. Before His Incarnation, Christ was absolute deity; after His Incarnation, He was just as much deity as before. His deity suffered nothing when He became flesh. This mystery baffles us when we meditate upon the person of Christ. This was drawn from Tozer’s writings. A. W. Tozer, And He Dwelt among Us: (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009), 77–81.

Isaiah 7:14 says, “The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” That virgin’s name was Mary.

The name Immanuel, is the heart of the Christmas story. It is a Hebrew name that means literally, “God with us.” It is a promise of incarnate deity, a prophecy that God Himself would appear as a human infant, Immanuel, “God with us.” This baby who was to be born would be God Himself in human form.
If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: “God with us.” We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ. The greater truth of the holiday is His deity. More astonishing than a baby in the manger is the truth that this promised baby is the omnipotent Creator of the heavens and the earth!

The promise of a coming Davidic Messiah is intertwined with the promise that God himself would be with his people. The significance of Matthew’s interpretation of the meaning of Jesus’ name, “Immanuel,” therefore, cannot be overstated: “ ‘The virgin will be with Child and will give birth to a Son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us’ ” (Matt. 1:23). In Jesus, God has come to be with his people, to fulfill the deepest meaning of the covenant—God with his people as Master, Lord, and Savior.

This Christmas season let’s remember and let’s pray something along these lines of a great prayer offered by D. A. Carson.

“We thank you, dear heavenly Father, for disclosing yourself to us in words in a Book, in great events that have taken place at various times across the centuries, and supremely in your dear Son. It is such an amazing thing that this Word described in the first chapter who was one with you from eternity has now become a human being, sometimes described as Immanuel, God with us. Such that all he says and all he does, all he speaks and the way he loves and what he judges, what he has done is nothing other than what you have said and done and judged.

We thank you that all of this has come about because of the overflow of your love for your own Son and of his love for you, determined to please you in every respect, even in going to the cross, that we might be forgiven. We hear this promise, “If anyone believes my words, then in truth he is knowing, he is obeying, he is hearing the very words of God. O Lord God, we do believe these words. We see here is the passage from death to life, and we say with other people of old, “Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief.” In Jesus’ name, amen.”

Merry Christmas!